SHARP POINTS

Cabinet capitals

W

ashington shorthand often reduces the Department of Commerce to Commerce, and so on. So that would make the head of that department the secretary of Commerce, right?

Well, no. Although that capitalized short form is perfectly acceptable (He works at Commerce) and the secretaries' titles should be capitalized when used before names (Commerce Secretary Bill Daley), the terms agriculture, commerce, defense, education, energy, health and human services, housing and urban development, interior, labor, state, transportation, and veterans affairs should otherwise be lowercased in titles (the secretaries of agriculture and commerce).